SAN FRANCISCO — Judging by the beating Cliff Lee absorbed last night, he must have caught the postseason pitching flu from A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes.

With Game 1 of the World Series at AT&T Park between the Rangers and Giants billed as a big-time pitching performance between aces Tim Lincecum and Lee, the studs were duds. Lee, who had been perfect across eight October starts, was awful and the main reason the Giants won, 11-7, in front of 43,601.

Lee started the crisp evening 7-0 in the postseason and coming off an eight-inning masterpiece in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees. His last 14 frames were scoreless and he hadn’t surrendered a run in 22 of 24 innings this postseason.

Yet, he looked like somebody who was the product of cross-pollination of Burnett and Hughes.

In 4 2/3 innings, easily the shortest postseason stint in Lee’s career, he was spanked for seven runs (six earned) and eight hits. The lefty with control so good he can drill a gnat in the butt walked one and hit another. And he flushed an early 2-0 lead.

“I was missing with fastballs and cutters,” Lee said. “And the changeup wasn’t there. I was trying to find it, and they made me work by putting together good at-bats. I missed out and over the plate, and professional hitters don’t miss that stuff.”

Of course, the putrid outing did nothing to lessen the Yankees’ burning desire to put Lee, a free agent after the Series, in the rotation next year with Hughes and Burnett.

Lee was lifted in the fifth when the Giants scored six runs. Replaced by Darren O’Day, Lee was barely in the dugout when Juan Uribe crushed a three-run homer.

So, based on the opinion of talent evaluators talking before the Giants got the drop in the best-of-seven Series, the Giants are in control because of what comes after Lincecum and Lee.

Nobody The Post talked to yesterday gave the Rangers an edge in the next three game’s starting pitching matchups.

“Everything,” a scout said when asked if his analysis was based on the Giant hurlers having better stuff than the Rangers. “They are not the same. San Francisco doesn’t hit, but they don’t give up runs and their bullpen is good. In the two, three and four spots, San Francisco is ahead of the game, and in the bullpen they are way ahead of the game.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean they are going to win it. Before the ALCS, you would have given the Yankees the edge in starting pitching. How did that turn out?

“Cain is more consistent than C.J. Wilson,” said a scout who advanced the Rangers and Giants late in the season. “C.J. Wilson’s stuff is good, but when it isn’t, he falls apart. Colby Lewis was good against the Yankees but he doesn’t have the stuff to dominate a team. I give Sanchez the call here although he can be erratic. Bumgarner is very good for a young kid. Stuff-wise, I will go with Bumgarner over Tommy Hunter, who will compete like a SOB.”

At this level everybody competes. What separates is executing pitches and stuff.

If not for Lincecum, a talent evaluator says, Cain could easily be the Giants’ ace.

“He is certainly capable of being a No. 1,” he said. “Colby Lewis has to be perfect because he is basically a two-pitch pitcher. As for Tommy Hunter, they aren’t going to go too long with him. If they get six [innings] out of him they will be ecstatic.”

A half-dozen innings from Hunter would almost double what he delivered in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Yankees. In 3 1/3 inning,s he gave up three runs and five hits in a Rangers win.

“I don’t like Texas’ pitching after Lee,” an NL coach said. “I like Sanchez’s stuff, and Bumgarner has a lot of poise for a young kid.”